Distorted picture and multi-color words

You need to resolder the convergence chips. This is a very common issue with this line of TVs.

Hometheaterspot.com's Mitsubishi forum has detailed posts on how to fix this. Just serach for "55809 convergence" and you should find the info you need.

We took the back off a few weeks ago. Ran a multimeter over the the fuses. http://www.techlore.com/forum/thread/17103/Mitsubishi-WS-55809-Problems/?replyTo=16564#reply

They tested good. Pushed around on the heat sink. Whala, a real picture!! This worked for a few weeks. Then, back to the same old. So I took the back off again. Pushed on the heat sink (with a board of course) and we are back to a wonderful picture! Looks like we need to resolder the heat sink or convergence chips.

There are some pics towards the bottom of the thread listed below.

http://www.hometheaterspot.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/105109

I've had the bow tie problem for about 9 months on my Mits 55809. For the first couple months it progressively took longer to go away upon startup, but since then has not got worse. The last couple months I've been tapping the top of the cabinet in the middle to make it go away and since then the condition has become less frequent with no ill effects to convergence.

ive got the same problem on mine ita a 2001 model and also mine when you turn it on it goes off by itself and wont stay on.also mine has multiple pictures one green and one red almost as if 3d im not sure what it cost to fix it but tvs have come down so much i might just buy a new one. good luck with yours

My TV is doing the same thing. Is it fixable? Is it something I can fix?